Mr. PALMERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will state 602W whether, as a result of an exchange of views between the Turkish Government and the British Foreign Office, the Turkish Cabinet have decided to give the contract for the building of two Turkish "Dreadnoughts" to Messrs. Armstrong?
§ Sir E. GREYI have seen in the Press that a statement to this effect is reported to have been made in the Turkish Parliament. I am inquiring what the actual statement was. His Majesty's Government have expressed the view to the Turkish Government that certain orders for ships and guns should be placed with British firms as a result of negotiations entered into by the Turkish Government on their own initiative; but His Majesty's Government have not supported any one firm or group to the exclusion of others, so far as all firms were competing for work to be executed in Great Britain.